Sunday, May 06, 2012

Ed Sanders and the Fugs: "Nothing"

In honor of the recent publication of Ed Sanders' latest book, "Fug You," it seems appropriate to resuscitate this classic song from "The Fugs' First Album" (1966). If nihilists could ever have an anthem, this would be it. The claims go a little too far for my taste here and there ("Allen Ginsberg / nothing nothing nothing"?) But the overall point is relentlessly hammered home. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any concert footage of the Fugs performing this song.

Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg (1923-2010) founded the Fugs in 1964. Kupferberg almost lost his life much earlier, in a 1944 suicide attempt. He jumped off the Manhattan bridge but, entirely by chance, a tugboat was passing nearby and pulled him out of the water. He suffered serious injuries but recovered and lived on for another 66 productive years.

The name of the band came from the variant of "fuck" that Norman Mailer used to escape the censors in The Naked and the Dead (1948).